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Voting in the Primary Election

In our Voters Service role, we present unbiased, nonpartisan informationabout elections, the voting process, and issues on the ballot.

Being registered with a political party will make a difference when you vote in a Presidential primary election, but in California it will not make a difference when you vote in the statewide primary election for state constitutional, U.S. Congressional, and state legislative offices. The next statewide primary will be held on June 3, 2014.

Summary

Presidential Primary

If you are registered to vote with a political party, you will be given a ballot for that party in a Presidential primary election.

If you are unaffiliated with any party (sometimes called “no party preference” or "decline to state"), you will be given a nonpartisan ballot, containing only the names of all candidates for nonpartisan offices and any ballot measures to be voted upon at the primary election.

Or, you may be able to request the ballot of one of the political parties at the polls or on your vote-by-mail ballot request form. Each political party has the option of allowing decline-to-state voters to vote in their Presidential primary.

California Statewide Primary

In June 2012, California started using the Top Two Candidate Open Primary system for statewide offices.

All candidates for a given state or congressional office will be listed on a single Primary Election ballot.

Voters can vote for the candidate of their choice for these offices.

The top two candidates, as determined by the voters, will advance to the General Election in November.

History of California Statewide Primary Elections

Until 1996 a “closed” primary system governed California’s primary elections. In a "closed" primary system only voters registered in a political party could vote that party's primary ballot. Unaffiliated (“no party preference” or "decline-to-state") voters vote only on whatever measures and nonpartisan candidates were on the ballot.

This system was amended by the passage of Proposition 198 in March, 1996 and changed to a “blanket” or “open” primary, in which any voter can vote for any candidate without declaring a party preference. In 1998 the United States Supreme Court declared California’s open primary system unconstitutional saying it violated a political party’s First Amendment right of association. The state reverted to using the closed primary system.

The closed primary system in California was amended in 2000 when Senate Bill 28 implemented a “modified” closed primary system, which permitted voters who declined to register with any political party to vote for a party’s candidates in a primary election if authorized by that party’s rules and duly noticed by the Secretary of State.

Current Statewide Primary Rules

California’s Top Two Primary System

Voters approved the Top Two Primary system for statewide offices in June 2010. With the Top Two Primary, all candidates running for an office are listed on one ballot, regardless of their party preference. A candidate’s party has no impact on how the election is conducted or who is allowed to advance to the General Election. Instead, candidates go on to a run-off election based solely on how many votes they receive in the Primary.

The two candidates who receive the most votes qualify for the general election, hence the name “Top Two.”

It does not matter if one candidate receives a majority of the votes cast: the top two vote getters always advance to the general election.

Even if only one or two candidates are running for a Top Two office, there will still be a primary election for that office.

Because candidates are not appearing on the ballot representing a party, it is possible for two candidates from the same party to be the top two vote-getters and advance to the General Election.

The Top Two Primary applies to most of the offices that were previously known as “partisan” and are now known as “voter-nominated” offices. In California these offices include:

United States Senators

Congressional Representatives

State Senators

Assembly members

Governor

Lt. Governor

State Treasurer

Secretary of State

State Attorney General.

The Top Two Primary does not apply to elections for:

President and Vice President, or

Political Party County Central Committees or County Councils

These offices are called “party nominated” offices.

Write-in candidates for voter-nominated offices can still run in the primary election. However, a write-in candidate can only advance to the general election if the write-in candidate is one of the top two vote-getters in the primary.

The Secretary of State has posted a useful comparison of the new Top-Two system with the former "modified closed primary" system, including the change to "voter-nominated" offices rather than party nominated offices and the elimination of write-in candidates in general elections. For the complete list of comparisons, please go to this link. The Alameda County Registrar of Voters has useful information about the elective offices that are affected by the Top Two Primary system here.